Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan brought together foreign ministers from the R4 group (Türkiye, Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia) and Europe's E3 (Britain, France, Germany), plus Italy's deputy prime minister, in Istanbul this week to press for de-escalation in the Gulf and Ukraine. Fidan said the group agreed a new attack on Iran “would widen the war and spread the conflict across the region.”
Turkish stocks fell as much as 4 percent on Friday, confirming a bear market with losses topping 20 percent in a month and bringing the total wiped from Borsa Istanbul to $120.7 billion since a fund-manipulation scandal broke in mid-September. Parliament passed a law on Thursday allowing interim payments of up to 1 million lira to investors in the 131 funds regulators ordered liquidated, which held assets from more than 455,000 people; 47 funds are still being wound down and 31 suspects, including a former ruling-party lawmaker, are in custody. Norway's sovereign wealth fund said its Turkish stock holdings have lost $302 million, 15.6 percent, since June, with deputy chief executive Trond Grande calling the fund “more the victim than the perpetrator.”
EU Ambassador to Türkiye Aivo Orav said Turkish officials “have received instructions at the highest level to resolve the problems related to these six criteria” for visa liberalisation: anti-terrorism legislation, data protection, Europol cooperation, anti-corruption measures, judicial cooperation and implementation of the EU readmission agreement. Orav gave no timeline but said recent discussions had been “encouraging.”
The Israel Allies Foundation launched its 68th parliamentary caucus worldwide in Cyprus's House of Representatives, with six MPs from three parties. IAF president Josh Reinstein told the launch that Israel and Cyprus “have a common adversary, Türkiye,” while lawmaker Chrysis Pantelides spoke of “Turkish expansionism and aggression and terrorism”; the Cypriot party Volt Cyprus warned that such alignment could endanger national security.
A gunman opened fire from his car in the Paris suburbs of Trappes and La Verrière on Friday, killing one person and wounding five others, including a 12-year-old girl. The Élysée Palace called it a “racist, terrorist attack” and Trappes mayor Ali Rabeh said it was “objectively racist, probably Islamophobic”; prosecutors opened a terrorism investigation. A 39-year-old suspect was arrested nearby in Coignières carrying a submachine gun and tear-gas grenades.
A drone struck the Comoros-flagged cargo ship Khoryv about 24 kilometres off Romania's Constanța port on Friday morning, setting it ablaze; it later capsized, leaving one of its 13 crew dead, three missing and nine rescued. Romania and the European Commission blamed Russia, with President Nicușor Dan calling it “a new example of the tragic consequences of Russia's aggression against Ukraine” and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen saying she was “deeply alarmed by yet another Russian escalation in the Black Sea.” EU Council President António Costa said such attacks off EU coastlines “are increasing as a consequence of Russia's war.”
The European Union is pushing to turn planned Ukraine-Russia-US talks, expected in the first half of November in Abu Dhabi, from a trilateral format into a multilateral one that includes European representation. Commission deputy spokesperson Arianna Podestà said “there is an expectation that there will be a multilateral-level discussion with representatives at senior official level, and the EU will be present at these talks,” adding the bloc has “always worked to have Ukraine in a position of strength.” The Kremlin's Dmitry Peskov signalled resistance, saying the talks “will take place in a trilateral format,” with the broader peace process stalled since February after US military action against Iran.
A ceasefire covering the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, on the Dnipro's eastern bank opposite Kherson, is set to begin on 29 October to allow humanitarian aid in and civilians out; before the war the city held some 24,000 people, now down to 1,700–2,000. US First Lady Melania Trump negotiated the terms directly with both sides as what the White House called an “exclusive intermediary,” saying “the situation in Oleshky is dire … a front-line war city on the brink of disaster.” City administrator Tetiana Hasanenko said the planned 25-kilometre evacuation route runs through mined territory, calling it “a road of death.”
Two Israeli soldiers were killed and three lightly wounded in a gunfight near Hebron's Yehuda Junction on Friday; the two Palestinian attackers, armed with an M16 rifle and a handgun, were also killed. The military and Shin Bet locked down Hebron, going house to house and allowing residents to leave only through three checkpoints after questioning, and Prime Minister Netanyahu said Israel was preparing what he described as the West Bank's largest operation since the 1967 war. The lockdown comes four days before Tuesday's Israeli election, widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu's leadership since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack.
Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE's 48-year-old Minister of State and a former UAE ambassador to the UN, entered the race for UN Secretary-General this week as the contest reaches its decisive phase. An informal Security Council straw poll had given Costa Rica's Rebeca Grynspan a narrow lead before opposing votes reopened the field to new candidates, who also include Argentina's Rafael Grossi, Ecuador's Maria Fernanda Espinosa and Senegal's Macky Sall. Candidates have until the end of December to win at least nine of the Council's 15 votes with no veto from a permanent member; Nusseibeh said she would serve “speaking frankly with every government and answering to none.”
Volvo Cars said Friday it will cut about 2,500 jobs worldwide, roughly 2,000 of them white-collar positions around Gothenburg, after posting a third-quarter operating loss of 5.6 billion kronor against a 6.4 billion kronor profit a year earlier. The company blamed US tariffs, intensifying Chinese competition and the Trump administration's removal of EV purchase incentives, and CEO Håkan Samuelsson said it needed “additional decisive actions, lowering our break-even point,” to be achieved through voluntary redundancies, a hiring freeze and natural attrition rather than factory-floor layoffs. Truck-making sister company AB Volvo had the opposite quarter, with adjusted operating profit of 14.7 billion kronor and orders up to 46,918 vehicles from 37,134 a year earlier.
Swedish police raided SSAB's steelworks in Oxelösund on 7 October with seven government agencies and detained 19 Filipino electrical engineers, believing a three-country staffing arrangement, a Dutch company leasing them to an Italian firm that posted them to Sweden, was designed to dodge Swedish labour rules. The Migration Agency overruled the police: official Sara Isman said the structure was legal under exceptions in the EU's Posted Workers Directive, provided conditions on employment, housing and insurance in the Netherlands were met, and called the rules “very complicated.” Police said they “do not share that assessment,” though Isman said officers had acted “with good intentions to ensure that people aren't exploited.”